Politics & Other Mistakes: Mills the monster

The newly inaugurated Democratic governor is raising taxes, seizing guns, importing illegal immigrants, providing welfare to lazy slobs, and legalizing publicly funded abortions for the entire nine months of pregnancy and even afterwards for kids who play violent video games or have the audacity to return home to live with their parents following college.

I know all this is true because I read it in press releases and online comments from assorted Republican and fanatic conservatives, who’d have no reason to fabricate falsehoods about a political opponent, particularly one who’s been in office for about 20 minutes and hasn’t yet had time to locate the executive bathroom.

I’ll forego the more obnoxious trolling, but GOP state chairwoman Dr. Demi Kouzounas had this critique of Mills’ inaugural address – hours before she delivered it: “The so-called ‘new direction’ Janet Mills has promised will be a return to the [former Democratic Gov. John] Baldacci era, with budget and pension shortfalls, economic failures and piles of new debt if Janet Mills cannot resist the worst impulses of the special interest coalition that has fought for eight years to regain power.”

At least the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s Jacob Posik waited until after Mills gave her speech to condemn it: “Overall, Mills offered a big government vision that will include tens of millions in new spending and make Maine people more dependent on government and the welfare state.”

Here’s Jason Savage, executive director of the Republican Party: “I want to call the idea of Democrats spending money as fast as they can, or passing something without knowing what's in it unprecedented, but it's not. It's straight out of the liberal playbook.”

Now for a bit of reality. With the exception of signing an order to expand Medicaid (something voters supported by a solid majority in a 2017 referendum), Mills hasn’t actually done anything yet. She hasn’t even proposed doing much, unless you count putting solar panels on the Blaine House and a “Welcome Home” sign at the entrance to the Maine Turnpike. Neither of those initiatives seem particularly provocative.

Mills has promised not to raise taxes during her first two years in office. She’s nominated cabinet members that even GOP critics concede are highly qualified. She said she won’t reignite the controversy that was started by her predecessor over the labor mural. She has yet to endorse any of the more radical pieces of legislation introduced by her Democratic colleagues. She seems intent on correcting the myriad problems plaguing the state Department of Health and Human Services (a sizable portion of which are the responsibility of the previous Republican administration). And she hasn’t launched a single profanity-laced tirade against enemies, real or imagined (also a hallmark of the departed governor).

It’s far too early to say if Mills will become bogged down in the bumbling incompetence that marked Baldacci’s tenure as governor. But even Baldacci managed to blunder through his first few months in office without committing any disastrous mistakes. There’s no reason to think Mills will do worse.

Nor is there any reason to believe she’ll do better. But the possibility is out there, so we ought to be willing to wait until she does something – anything – before yielding to the currently fashionable trend of condemning her to political hell for what appear to be imaginary sins.

About your comment: Do you really think limiting free speech in the "Opinion" section of an online paper is the way to go? If so we would have to shut down a lot of people from having an opinion, all opinions.

And: Do you actually think people don't say what they want (Within publishable Etiquette) in "Opinion Articles" and in the comment section?

Obviously Al didn't listen to governor Mills inaugural address. She listed a myriad of ways she was going to spend money. Does he think the state has some secret way of making money? Does Al not understand the state gets money by taking it from the working people? All of her "well-intentioned" programs require funds. The way the state gets money is by taxation. Hello Al , that means raising taxes. And by the way, her Democrat cronies have proposed 12 new gun laws, taxpayer funded abortions and raising taxes. Elections have consequences and the duped Maine voters are on the verge of seeing the lunacy that is the Democrat party.

@Eddie. Al has tried to pertray the same attitude with Gov. Mills as he had with former Gov. LePage and failed miserably. He started out fine but by the end of his article he was just talking about good ole Gov. LePage. It’s kind of funny how his man crush for the former Gov. shows.
Yes the new Gov. has in fact said some of the things he claims are fake news I’ve heard it on wabitv5 or is that fake news too Al ?
As far as her ideas go... yes our taxes will definitely be going up !!!!

I have known Janet for years. She is a good person who will do her best to improve the state of Maine. She won't use fowl language and she won't go against the will of the people when they vote for something and she won't raise taxes if there is any other alternative. If that bothers you then you most likely have been brainwashed so throughly that nothing will ever change you.

I think it should probably be foul language as I don’t think it makes any sense the way you wrote it. Chickens and ducks and the like don’t talk much and I don’t think they know how to type either. Also I like the idea of having your brain washed. Mine gets so dirty sometimes. Do you know where I could go to have it done? Thank you. Good Bye.

So for now the D B doesn't allow any criticism of our new governor.No criticism here, just an observation.She says no tax increases until the surplus that former governor Lepage built has been spent.She predicts that will take two years.This may not pass D B admin..Many comments don't.

I'm sure Janet is a fine person and all that but, The Rule of the Dems is Tax and Spend.

But THANKS to Gov LePage savings, we get 2 years of no tax increase but only while the Dems give all that money away....
I say 2 years but something tells me they will find ways to spend it much faster than that. Their "constituents" are already lining up at their door with their idle hands out.

Then.... It's back to Tax and Spend, Tax and Spend.

If so, me and my savings are going bye bye.
Hurry back Paul... Before they run our state further into the poor house. Then there will be nothing left to tax.....

Tax and spend
The Republican party has done a very good job painting democrats as tax and spend liberals but if you look back in history instead of just repeating false statements put out by both parties you would find that public debt as a percentage of GDP reached it's lowest after ww-2 in 1973 white Richard Nixon, a Republican was president.

Debt as a share of GDP has consistently increased since then, except during the terms of presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton both Democrats.

Public debt rose sharply during the 1980s, as President Reagan cut tax rates and at the same time increased spending.

Public debt again rose sharply in the wake of the 2007–08 financial crisis caused which many believe was caused by relaxed regulation in the financial markets during the 2nd Bush administration and the resulting significant tax revenue declines and government spending in an effort to bail out banks, the auto industry and get the economy rolling again.

Which brings us to the current administration. You would think now that the economy is strong national debt would be going lower but it is continuing to rise at the same rate it did during the Obama era when we were trying to dig ourselves out of the recession.

So looking back at the history of Tax and Spend with the exception of the Obama administration when spending increased do to the recession the label Tax and Spend should be firmly stamped on the forehead of most Republican Presidents. Sorry but facts Don't lie, the same cannot be said about political parties and news outlets.

Absolutely correct that both parties generally have a spending problem. The difference being the taxing problem. Hence the label tax and spend. Democrats typically raise taxes. Here in Maine we had eight years of lower taxes AND lower spending. Politicians try to please everyone. Problem is that the number with their hands out grows every year. More of them need to be like governor lepage and learn to say no. Someone once said " if you want more of something subsidize it and if you want less of something tax it" we need a reversal. in a way we need to subsidize work and tax laziness. I'm just not sold on the idea that governor Mills is up to the task. Can she say no? I have my doubts. Hopefully she proves me wrong.

@not quite dead yet;because the DB thinks Mr. Diamond is a genius and anyone that might disagree with his wisdom may not get their opinion published.It has something to do with the first amendment i think.Maybe Mr. Diamond is part of DB admin.